Gemini

The exquisitely-researched standalone prequel series to Dorothy Dunnett''s revered Lymond Chronicles, following the ancestors of Francis Crawford of Lymond in Continental Europe. Gemini is Book Eight in The House of Niccolo series. ----------------------------- ''Landing in Berwick that wild, February day, Nicholas de Fleury had known that he was mad to come back to Scotland, but that it had to be done.'' The winter of 1477 is coming to a close as Nicholas, his fortunes restored, returns to the country he nearly ruined to make amends and to settle old scores - and is immediately set upon by assassins. Yet it is not long before he is established at the court of King James III, using his wits and wiles to help steer the kingdom through the storms of trade and war ravaging the continent. With his wife Gelis once more by his side, Nicholas knows a reckoning must be made with his estranged family as the final loose strands of his story entwine together in the concluding volume of the House of Niccolo. ''An extraordinary achievement'' Daily Telegraph